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FAMILY IV.— OCULINAD^. 
The corallum in this family is solid (not porous), com- 
pound, increasing by gemmation so as to take a form more 
or less branching and tree-like. The stony tissue is very 
compact, the surface smooth, delicately striate near the 
calices, or but slightly granular. The walls of the coralUtes 
(or stony skeletons of the individual polypes) are not per- 
forate, not distinct from the common tissue {coPMmchyma) , 
and increase by their inner surface, so as gradually to 
fill up the cavity from below upwards. The interseptal 
chambers are only imperfectly divided by a few dissepiments, 
or horizontal projections of stony matter shot across. The 
plates {septa) are entire, or have the upper edge slightly 
divided ; they are well developed, and are few in number. 
We have but one native representative of this family, 
the genus Lopliohelia. 
